Jan Hrebejk: Beauty in Trouble (2006)

[Chris Knipp]

JAN HREBJEK: BEAUTY IN TROUBLE (2006)

Distracting details

Review by Chris Knipp

This film by well-known Czech director Jan Hrebejk and writer-collaborator Petr Jarchovský is remarkable for its particularity but annoying and distracting in its details. Taking its theme and title from a Robert Graves poem, it deals with a woman with several men and some obnoxious relatives in her life who's trying to survive and protect her two children, 15-year-old Lucina (Michaela Mrvikova) and little blond asthmatic Kuba (Adam Misik). The poem is much in evidence, but the theme--it gets a little lost.

Marcela (Anna Geislerová), the Beauty, and Jarda (Roman Luknár) have lost everything in the Prague floods of 2002. All they really have left now, it seems, is good sex-- which they go at with such a vengeance in their tiny apartment that Lucina and Kuba, in front of the telly, must hold their ears against the noise. Hrebejek relishes such explicitness and skates on the edge of embarassment or shock. There's no good explanation precisely why, but financial desperation has led Jarda to processing stolen cars in the big garage that adjoins his flatlet. His car-thief cohort drives off a posh Volvo the easygoing Benes (Josef Abrham) has left with the keys in the ignition while visiting a large property he owns. Benes is a super-nice guy, but no fool. His Volvo is wired for tracking by satellite in cases like this and that leads the cops straight to Jarda's garage and he and his cohort are off to jail.

"Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel,/On whom she can rely," begins the Graves poem. But actually this fracas leads Benes to Marcela, when he meets her at the police station. He introduces her to sushi and how to drink wine and plies her with a picture book about Tuscany where he, though Prague-born, owns a lovely villa and has lived most of his life. He's here to reclaim the house in Prague now occupied by a couple with an ancient and infirm mother, whom he allows to remain. Benes' every gesture is benevolent, even though he doesn't prevent Jarda from going off to jail.

In the circumstances Marcela must retreat with Lucina and Kuba to depend on the charity of her mother, Zdena (Jana Brejchova) and the far less tender mercies of Zdena's present husband, the scrawny diabetic Richard Hrstka (Jiri Schmitzer)--who, for the kids, starting when they commit the cardinal sin of consuming his dietetic cookies, proves to be the uncle from hell. Jiri Schmitzer hijacks the film at this point, and never quite lets it go. Even in the final scene he is a figure of leering menace. It is surprising that the obnoxious Richard doesn't sexually abuse one or both of the children. He is insistent that Marcela needs to get out on her own, and when Benes offers to take her under his wing he and Richard become improbable allies. Improbable--perhaps implausible. Why should Benes like him? But then, what is Benes's whole story? About some things the film gives too much information and about others, not enough.

Clearly the "good angel," Benes is infallibly kind--and a polished, good-looking older man whose manners befit his Italian upbringing. It's only at the end, when he's pushed to the limits over his Prague property by the devious occupants, that he proves he won't lie down and be walked over.

Also to be dealt with is Jarda's religious fanatic mother Sdena (Jana Brejchova), and her interactions with Zdena and Richard are something to watch. But she is just another wild card that does not augment the deck.

The poem has been set to music in a Czech translation and is sung on screen by the lusty-throated accordionist-vocalist Raduza, first in a tiny scene, then in a more extended one staged at a prison performance witnessed by Jarda and the car thief pal. If you revere Hrebejk as an auteur you may relish this sequence; otherwise it tends to feel gratuitous. Also included are a number of songs by Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova of the Oscar-award-winning Irish musical film Once, including the latter's theme song, "Falling." They feel more out of place than they would otherwise because of their familiarity from Once--though this film came first.

Hrebejk's people are arresting; even little Koba has his Shakespearean-child moments and a wealth of charm; but the director and his writer seem unable to resist the temptation to digress and to over-expand, a temptation strangely a odds with their interest in the titular theme. The property hassle Benes endures may be useful for showing he has a tough side. But such an elaborate demonstration wasn't necessary. The acting is fine, and there is a wonderful with quirkiness and specificity, but the basic themes of love, sex, and money get lost in the shuffle and Marcela's conflicts and how she resolves them never become clear. It's fine that there is no resolution and true to the theme and to Graves's poem that Marcela still has hot sex with Jarda during a revisit to Prague after moving to Tuscany with Benes and her kids. But there are too many questions remaining about what to make of the obnoxious Richard or of Jarda's annoyingly pious mother (Emília Vásáryová). How come all of a sudden we learn Koba is getting letters from "India" purported to be from his dad, who's in prison? When did that come about? Interesting details, hastily pasted in. This seems a world in which you can't see the forest for the trees.

[oscar jubis]

BEAUTY IN TROUBLE (Czech Republic)

Benes, a middle-aged Czech ex-patriate living in Tuscany, watches footage of the 2002 floods that devastated his native Prague. He decides to return to check on a property he owns. The floods ruined the uninsured home of the beautiful blonde Marcela and her husband Jarda, a mechanic who has turned to crime by stripping stolen cars. Marcela objects and they quarrel frequently. The kids are getting sick from the mold in their house. So Marcela and the kids move in with her meek, religious mother and Richard, mother's creepy, confrontational husband. It's an uncomfortable arrangement for everyone. Jarda gets arrested when the police find Benes' stolen car at his body shop. Marcela and Benes meet at the police station. Over time, they get to know each other and become friends, then lovers while Jarda serves time in prison. The cultured and generous Benes is very nice to Marcela's family, even to the obnoxious Richard. He even takes them on vacation to Tuscany, where he owns a vineyard. Jarda gets released from prison and wants a reconciliation with Marcela.

Beauty in trouble runs to the good angel
On whom she can rely
To pay her cab-fare, run a steaming bath,
poultice her bruised eye
Robert Graves (1895-1985)

This poem served as the inspiration for Beauty in Trouble, the latest collaboration between director Jan Hrebejk and writer Petr Jarchovsky. They have been inseparable since they met in film school twenty years ago, creating a highly regarded body of work (Big Beat, Up and Down, Divided We Fall). Their specialty is a type of humanistic drama with a healthy dosage of humor in which even secondary characters seem to exist outside the frame. They achieve a rather complex tone that feels invariably life-like: "If it's a tragic scene I try to shoot it as if it were a comic scene, and the other way around" say Hrebejk. I don't know specifically what that entails and it's probably unwise for others to attempt to duplicate that approach, but it works delightfully here. What Hrebejk films convey more than anything is an unconditional positive regard for even the least likable characters. They're granted their dignity and humanity. Richard may be the film's most interesting character. He's petty, dictatorial, even abusive but sometimes wise and ultimately well-intentioned. Another Hrebejk/Jarchovsky trademark is narrative clarity, a knack for guiding the viewer through significant events and pacing character introductions in a way that feels organic and natural. There's nothing simplistic about the characters or the plot of Beauty in Trouble but it's easy for the viewer to become oriented and engaged, all the way to the satisfyng and somewhat paradoxical conclusion. Ana Geislerova, who's excellent as Marcela, has become the most recognizable Czech actress since her three previous films (Zelary, Lunacy and Something Like Happiness) have traveled quite a bit (all three were released in the USA, where East-European films are usually hard to find).

*Review originally written as part of coverage of the 2007 Miami Film Festival. This excellent film is being distributed in the USA by small distributor Menemsha Films so don't expect a wide release. However, it's a film that should work well on dvd.